VA
by the.israel.project107
Summary: Miles beneath an island in the middle of an ocean is a network of underground tunnels and caves from which an unfamiliar relic has been unearthed. Ansem and his four assistants - Sora, Roxas, Riku and Axel - are charged with heading down there to find more. Deep underground. A long way from civilisation. And a long, long way from help, should anything go wrong... AkuRoku/RiSo.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Haven't had to write one of these in a while. Nope, nope, nope and nope. That oughta cover it.

 **A/N:** Don't get excited, even slightly. I'm reposting what little there is of this story because I've decided to continue it after HTPD. Which means it is a loooong way off. I had removed V.A. when I initially came back because I didn't plan on continuing it, but now I think I'd quite like to. Hence: returning what there was to my profile for the future. Hurray, the future!

.o.O.o.

CHAPTER ONE

Ansem was calling it his big chance.

He sat at the back of the truck with his feet flat on the floor, hands balled up on his thighs, looking coiled with enough barely tamped tension to spontaneously combust at the slightest spark. He just about had been, too, snapping at anyone who managed to slow the expedition down. No one was safe, from their coarse, chain-smoking driver who had tossed his cigarette butt near the tarpaulins during the loading-up process, all the way to Sora, who hadn't managed to read Ansem's behavioural signals in time and got yelled at for not shutting up when he couldn't remember the difference between stalagmites and stalactites. From then on, the young man had kept his mouth shut, as had most everyone – once someone started getting pissed at Sora, the bright and indefatigable, not to mention Ansem's favourite adoptive son, you knew that blasting point had been reached.

The rest of them, all six, were spread along the inward-facing benches flanking the truck's interior, pressed close, all elbows and shoulders and kissing thighs. Bags of tools and materials sat tucked behind their ankles, clanking and shifting as the vehicle slowly traversed the deepening tunnels of the underground network. They were moving ever downward, the driver, Cid, taking the unsteady path cautiously, the sound of the engine echoing all around them until their entire bodies hummed with it, heads aching not just with the constant growl and vibration but the persistent smell of diesel exhaust that sputtered from the truck's tailpipe and thickened the air they inhaled.

Roxas was grim and silent, arms resting on knees with his head hanging low and Axel's hand sympathetically against his back as he wrestled with near-constant nausea, hair half covering his rapidly paling face. It was less than fun for all involved, perhaps the only ones unaffected being Cid, whistling through his teeth up in the driver's cab as he chewed toothpicks between cigarettes, and Ansem, who was too involved in his own internal workings to even notice, his eyes containing a dull glaze that suggested his mind was far from the current proceedings – perhaps still back in Rufus ShinRa's private apartments, being told to go ahead with the expedition and bring back results or face dissolution.

The pressure was immense, spreading from Ansem and settled over them all like a second, oily skin, weighing them down and tying their tongues. Only ShinRa's elected accompanying bodyguards remained immune to the mood – it made little difference to their jobs whether or not Ansem succeeded, the long-haired woman, Tifa, and spike-haired man, Cloud, sitting across from each other, looking stiff and uncomfortable in the dim, cramped space. Natural light had been left behind some two hours previously, the harsh illumination of the truck's headlights splashing back from the rocky walls and ceiling to eerily brighten the cabin through the gap in the leather flaps forming the door between the roof and the tailgate. Somewhere, those two hours behind and above them, a little, idyllic island twinkled like a gem in the Mediterranean, its innocent, tiny face belying its low-hanging gut, its warren of interlinking tunnels, bridges and chasms.

The reason for their coming to such a godforsaken place dated back to three weeks previously, when a group of ambitious spelunkers had taken this very route down into the bowels of the earth and found, on the edge of a vast underground lake, what looked to be a relic of extra-terrestrial origin. Of course, Rufus ShinRa, being who he was and an aficionado for oddities and unique curios on top of that, managed to come by it before the military could lay their hands on the discovery, and sent it straight to his personal laboratory for testing. They had all seen it, Ansem and his expeditionary assistants, two of them his adopted sons and the other two, Riku and Axel, natives of the ShinRa company who had been appointed under Ansem's command when the man had joined their ranks three years ago. The relic was a tablet of some kind, long and heavy, carved into earthly stone with an unearthly language that none of the ShinRa linguists had been able to place – at least not on such short notice.

With the threat of the military nipping at his heels, Rufus had summoned Ansem the instant it had been identified as not of this world, his science division's exact words being "alien, but somehow familiar." It was the 'somehow familiar' that had prompted the greatest urgency – if ShinRa explorers couldn't get a hold of further proof before the air force got involved, Rufus would lose his chance to sell information of a possibly recurring extra-terrestrial life form on the planet to them. It was all about leverage: if the government got to it, they would claim it and make it disappear as though it had never existed, and nobody benefited; if Rufus found it first, he could hand it straight over to them on the provision of certain... legal guarantees... and, as all ShinRa employees learned reasonably rapidly, that which benefited Rufus benefited everyone. Ansem, for example, would gain continuing sponsorship for his archaeological research, the burning passion of his life. He felt that casting about for remains of beings not even native to the solar system was a trashy waste of his time, but ShinRa money spoke volumes in every corner of the world, and he danced to Rufus' tune just as anxiously as anyone.

Of course, on the opposite side of the coin hovered failure, which had been dogging his efforts for far too long as far as Rufus ShinRa was concerned. A man globally praised for his interpretive skills and ability to unearth priceless artefacts was nonetheless useless if that which he turned up was not what was desired. Thus, the ultimatum haunting this latest trip, and the clinging sense of severity in Ansem's bearing. Although there was always a sense of seriousness surrounding expeditions, even a slight thrill of adrenaline that came from defying the recognised authorities and occasionally encountering them out on the hunt, this time there was nothing – _nothing_ – but desperation. It oozed from Ansem's area of the truck, infecting, agitating, stripping away everything but the searing need to achieve. This was Ansem's big chance – his last chance – to prove himself worthy of ShinRa's support.

They continued in the truck until it was no longer a feasible way to travel, the main traversable artery blocked by an old partial cave-in another five hours inward. By this point, Roxas had quietly thrown up out the back of the truck three times, knuckles white around the edges of the tailgate, blond hair dulled with unhealthy sweat, while the others listened to his weak, hoarse coughs with pained grimaces. Nobody was feeling healthy by the time they climbed out, the sudden freedom a blessing, and although the air couldn't move down here, it almost felt like a cool breeze just to be away from so many pressing bodies and the hanging odour of Roxas' sour breath.

"No time for stretching legs," Ansem announced tersely, voice echoing faintly in the enclosed space as he dropped to the ground, his long, fair hair swinging, a strained look stamped indelibly on his features even as he attempted to seem businesslike. "We've got a walk ahead of us yet, you'll soon enough wish you could have had longer sitting down before we're through."

Making an allowance only for Roxas to go and regain the strength in his legs, he set the others to work unloading the gear from the truck, Cid coming around and joining in, the seven of them emptying the vehicle in ten minutes. From there, the sorting began, Ansem ruthlessly apportioning weight to each of them, himself included, until no one person was carrying less than forty-five pounds, their shoulders heavy with supplies both dried and perishable, gallons of water apiece, first aid kits, metal detectors, tarpaulins, digging tools, sets of brushes, fire starters, flashlights, gas cookers, military-issue closed-circuit rebreathers, and Christ only knew what else all bagged up, strapped on, and ready to go. Anything and everything that accompanied them in would be anything and everything that they had to survive on for the next three days, with no help on the way and nothing but a seven hour journey back out. They were in, they were in deep, and the only way that anyone was leaving was with everyone else in tow; anything at all that they could possibly solve while stuck hundreds of feet underground, they would.

"Why anyone would do this for recreation," Axel growled, speaking all their minds with succinct exasperation as they gathered in the brightness of the truck's darkness-slicing headlights, "is beyond me. No two ways about it." A disgruntled chorus of agreements and "Amen" met his words as they all felt their heels sink into the earth, upper bodies arching forward to take the pressure, only Ansem and the ShinRa guy, Cloud, refraining from sharing the sentiment.

"You'll get used to it," Cloud quietly said, managing to look at home under the ton of baggage, Sora letting out a strangled snort of derision at the very thought of it, looking more diminutive than usual with his pack looming behind him.

"Yeah, right. Says you, huh? I'm carrying half my entire body weight on my shoulders, here."

"So's your twin," Cloud pointed out, "and he's not complaining."

"Yeah, but Roxas is too sick to complain," Riku pointed out, shifting uncomfortably under his own load, obviously trying to bear it against the small of his back.

"Right," Axel brightly agreed, clicking on his flashlight and spinning it between his hands, "he's bitching on the inside, it's what Roxas does best. I mean, aside from bitching on the outside."

" _Enough."_ Ansem's deep timbre cut easily through the banter, the man already up near the towering rock mound that had killed the truck's progress, fully prepared and inspecting it for the swiftest route up and over. "We haven't the time for standing about. All of you get a move on, over by me. Roxas will be fine, you all will be." He twisted carefully, keeping his burden steady against his spine, calling back, "Cid, extinguish the headlights. We'll continue with the flashlights from here."

"You got it, champ." Their driver reached into the open vehicle and pulled the keys without a second thought, plunging the tunnel into near-complete blackness within a second. There was a yelp of surprise from Sora, then a single point of light flaring to life over by the truck as Cid lit himself a cigarette. Axel swung his torch beam over towards the man. "How come you get to look so fucking cool, Cid?"

"Because I'm the one with the fire, kid," Cid responded around the cigarette, slamming the truck's door shut, tucking away his lighter, hitching his pack higher on his compact frame and letting out a breath of smoke as he came around to meet them. One by one, their flashlights came on, the group inspecting the tunnel with new eyes, taking in the crags and cracks and spikes, the rough ground, the sturdy walls, all of it roughly cylindrical and entirely naturally formed.

"It's like one of those things," Sora commented, voice sounding suddenly smaller and lonely in the gloom, "where you look at nature and go 'wow'."

"Yeah, because 'wow' was what I was thinking," Axel drawled, "and not 'get me the heck outta here, I need my daily McDonald's hit'."

"If you mention food again, I'll kill you." Roxas' face looked sickly even in the softer light, the sweat yet to leave his brow, mouth curved perpetually downward.

"I said, that's enough." Ansem's words had sharpened, the command in them drawing his four assistants around to find that the ShinRa-appointed duo, trio counting Cid, had already moved away with a crunching of small stones and joined him over by the tunnel's obstruction. Without any further chatter they quickly complied, recognising his rebuilding temper and catching up as Tifa took the lead, beginning the ascent up the tricky pile of debris.

It filled half the tunnel, all thought of conversation bleeding from their minds as, in a world of shadows, the group attempted to find a cautious, steady way up. So many sections were loose, showers of cascading stones more often than not spilling down in their wake, sometimes onto one another, curses hissing out from time to time. It took a full thirty minutes just to reach the heap's peak with their packs trying their damndest to drag them over backwards every step of the way, after which they faced the same if not longer on the descent, nobody eager to twist an ankle through unnecessary haste. Breaths panted and grunted alongside the scrape of soles and crunching of gravel, muscles pulsing hotly through every fighting body as each person struggled to control the excess weight that only felt heavier after such a precarious climb.

At long last, they reached the base of the cave-in, feeling like a mountain had been overcome. Any hopes of taking a moment to congratulate themselves and recover, however, vanished as Tifa breathlessly asked, "Professor, do you need to take a minute?"

Ansem's eyes were already focused intently ahead, as though they could see through darkness and out the other side. "No. We have much to do, and little time to waste on an old man slowing down advancement. We shall carry on." He sent around a look that dared anyone to object. Cid obliged nicely.

"Well, shit. I sure as hell need a breather after that, I ain't gettin' paid enough to half-kill myself for the likes of you." He let his pack pull him back against the mound and pulled out a silver flask. In response to the pleading looks Axel was throwing his way, he gave a toothy grin and added, "But don't let an old man slow down advancement; you and the kids continue on, I can catch up on level ground. I just wasn't made for this up and down shit."

Without another word, he began tossing back mouthfuls from the flask and seemed settled for a stay. Ansem, letting out an unimpressed noise at the blatant weakness of will, turned and continuing on without trying to convince him otherwise. Tifa released a lungful of air, as though she'd love nothing more than to join Cid's camp of action or lack thereof, but instead said, "Well, come on, then, the rest of you." Axel's expression turned dirty, the redhead twisting as they walked away to throw Cid a savage middle finger, the man merrily waving his flashlight in farewell, its beam swinging across the curved ceiling.

"Eyes forward, Axel," Ansem reprimanded shortly without looking back.

"Yessir."

Axel's light re-joined the others', the seven combined creating sufficient guidance as they moved along at a steady pace. Tifa and Cloud took the front to ensure a safe and solid path for Ansem and company as their instructions dictated, keeping their eyes peeled for signs of trouble, though the spelunkers who had come through and started this whole thing off had reported no issues with any local wildlife. The way itself was another matter; it wasn't enough that they had to retrace the steps of their predecessors exactly, taking every inspired twist and turn and awkward climb that had led to the initial relic discovery, no – they also had to walk through caverns filled with the spray of underground waterfalls, freezing cold and blinding, had to follow the hand-drawn maps along ledges not so narrow that they couldn't walk one foot in front of another, but _just_ narrow enough to feel death yawning at one's flanks. They followed steep inclines and equally sharp descents that left their legs burning, sweat forming an all-over film of stinking moisture, and all with perhaps the most depressing realisation of all: that they'd have to do it again on the way back.

Whenever it was that Cid had caught back up to the group was a mystery – Sora, Riku, Roxas and Axel were completely absorbed in the physical toll wracking their bodies, the journey more taxing than perhaps even Ansem had anticipated. The breaks they took were brief but lifesaving, each and every one of them completely silent but for the panting breaths and the shaking rattle of water bottles knocking against teeth.

A total of six hours passed between leaving the truck and finally reaching their destination. There was a medley of soft groans as they faced the final hurdle of the hike: a crumbling collection of misshapen, apparently naturally-occurring stone steps. The eight of them gathered in a ragged line along the precipice of the first ledge, flashlights slowly combing the trial to come, sheer eight to nine foot drops, five in total leading down to the lakeshore, which sat out of range of their lights so that it appeared as though they would be dropping down towards nothing but a pitch black abyss. In peering down, Sora swayed forward slightly, one of Riku's hands jumping up to grab hold of his pack, voice murmuring into the hush, "Steady..."

"It's down there," Ansem muttered, gaze sweeping the emptiness, a general nod of agreement coming from the others, too weary for anything much else. Tifa and Cloud carefully unclipped and shed their packs to test the way first, the blond glancing calculatingly down at the distance before giving Tifa a brief nod and jumping from the ledge, vanishing in an instant to a flurry of surprised gasps. The thud of his landing came seconds later, the group pinning him with their flashlight beams. Cloud grimaced and shielded his face with one arm, calling up, sounding flat in the enormous cavern, "It's firm ground. Tifa, try my pack."

The woman hauled his pack from the ground with some effort, balancing it briefly on one knee before warning, "On its way, Cloud!" She heaved it over with a grunt, the silence pure as it dropped through the air, followed by a clatter as on the next step Cloud actually managed to catch it. Axel and Riku let out low, impressed whistles, the blond's arm muscles standing out like rocks, legs bent into a resultant crouch from nullifying the mammoth pack's downward momentum. His voice choked upward, _"It's doable,"_ and Tifa, pulling her sweaty hair behind her head and tying it there, ordered the others, "Everyone take off your packs; Cloud and I can manage them from here. Professor, you go on ahead, the area is safe. We'll catch up soon down the bottom." Then, "Not you, Cid, you're with us," as the older man abandoned his load in record time and attempted to slither past.

Cid cursed, stamping his feet a bit as he backtracked, grumbling, "Fine – but I'm having a smoke first."

Ansem and his four assistants unclipped the belts holding their packs against their bodies, Riku helping Sora lower to his knees before letting it go, he and Roxas as the smaller two of the group easily the most worn out by the challenge. Roxas, however, stubbornly refused to allow anyone to do the same for him, darting Axel a warning look as the redhead began to draw near. Lifting his hands defensively, the man murmured, "It never even crossed my mind, I swear," and instead unloaded his own back-aching weight, lowering it carefully to the dirt. The freedom of suddenly being forty pounds lighter was like being half-filled with helium, their shoulders seeming to float up around their ears while each step was like walking on the moon, as though they could simply bound down the steep steps in one clear leap and land as gently as a feather.

Seeing Riku obviously thinking the same thing, Axel smirked and nudged him, asking out of the corner of his mouth, "Want me to dare you to try it?"

Riku seemed unconvinced. "Wanna clean up the mess if I did?"

"Shit. Forget it."

"Gentlemen." Ansem once again caught their attention before the distraction of being liberated could lead them to forget their purpose here. They left their packs by Tifa and moved down the edge a little way to put enough space between themselves and the hurtling bags, not wanting to put Cloud off his game. Sora was first to go, approaching the ledge cautiously, inspecting the bottom with a sharp eye for obstructions, then crouching to minimise the distance and hopping into the gloom, taking a slight clatter of stones with him. He slammed down a moment later at the same time that Cloud caught one of their bags.

Roxas called down, "How was it?"

"Like the tree house on the play island back when we were kids," came the thoughtful answer, Roxas lifting his brows and nodding before taking the plunge himself, landing with more or less the same alacrity as his brother.

Axel and Riku exchanged glances. "...Did that comparison mean anything to you?"

"Nada," Riku confessed, eyeing the drop.

Axel blew out a sigh. "If a couple of kids in a tree house can do it..." He gathered his balance and leapt, Riku shrugging and following suit, the pair of them hitting the second step within heartbeats of one another.

Ansem, seeing their success, wasn't far behind, and as if to prove himself just as fit as anyone was the first to take the next one, commanding, "Come along, all of you" before disappearing with a flash of his torch and thudding to the ground out of sight. Leaving Cloud, Tifa and Cid to continue handling the bags, the four young men trailed after their boss, the five of them managing to make their way to the steps' base with a minimum of scratches and bangs.

It was colder down here, nearer to the water, the voices and lights of the ShinRa trio seeming distant. All of them breathing hard after their effort, Ansem, with little else to do until their bags caught up to be unpacked, found a rock to sit on and said, "You four, explore a little and see the area. Look for firewood. Be careful, though, and don't lose your flashlights." He looked exhausted, glad to be left alone, and although the others felt a similar weariness tugging at their moods, they complied and went off to briefly check the site out. They would be setting up camp halfway between the lake's edge, where the spelunkers' artefact had been found, and the steps, giving them ease of accessibility to the major features of the cavern and a good vantage point if anyone from the government happened to follow them in at any point over the next few days.

In a loose group, the four of them tiredly scanned the immediate area with their flashlights, finding small, stubborn plants clinging to life in amongst the rocks, but too feeble after lives lacking sunlight to provide anything close to firewood. Kicking stones with the toes of their shoes, they hunted for only a short while longer before returning to Ansem, the man taking note of their lack of fuel with understanding, allowing them to find their own rocks to sit on for the few minutes before Cloud, Tifa and Cid made it to the bottom to join them.

With the arrival of the bags, and a puffing, panting, swearing Cid galvanising them to action with a snarl that they were all sitting on his rock, they, Ansem, Tifa and Cloud began pulling apart the efficiently stuffed packs and setting up the campsite.

The first thing to do was set up the floodlights, two of them turned inward and hooked up to the small generator Cid had hauled along from the truck. By their light, tents were erected, the gas stoves set up and a fire pit built for the long-life artificial logs to be lit once the generator was switched off. Their tools were set out for the next day, laid across one bright blue tarpaulin with a second one draped over the top and weighed down with stones to protect them from falling dust or whatever scampering creatures might exist all the way down here.

Cloud took a metal pail and went to inspect the water's edge while Tifa helped with the tools, coming back with a bucket full of ice-cold water for washing in, the men gladly stripping their chests bare and scooping handfuls to throw over their sweat-covered faces and under their arms, dripping and huffing. Meanwhile, Cid was bent over the fire pit, muttering around a toothpick and waving his lighter against the artificial logs. With a laugh, scrubbing his face dry with his t-shirt, Axel went to help, grabbing a box of fire starters and a new shirt while the others began lighting their cookers and mixing dried preserved meals with water over their small flames. Within two hours, the entire campsite had been set out and the eight explorers sat hunched around a steadily burning fire, hot mugs of tea by their feet, eating out of aluminium bowls, spoons clinking against the sides, too exhausted by the long journey to bother with conversation.

Tifa and Cloud were the first to disappear into their respective tents with murmured goodnights, Cid having one last cigarette before joining Cloud in his two-person tent and zipping it up tight for the next eight or so hours. After him went Ansem, swilling down the last of his tea and retreating into his own personal tent, the soft glow of an LED camping light illuminating the interior a minute later as he obviously had no plans yet of falling asleep, no doubt wanting to read through the expedition's documentation one last time. Of his four assistants, Sora caved first, he and Riku trailing off to their sleeping bags with weak waves and heavy eyes, leaving only two by the fire: Roxas and Axel.

Short flames danced quietly along the artificial logs, licking up out of the centre of them, Axel's eyes fixed upon their play while Roxas stared down into his nearly empty bowl with the lifelessness of one near to slumber's edge. It seemed to take each of them a while to realise that they had been left alone, information slow to seep into minds belonging to such fatigued bodies. Axel blinked slowly around after about ten minutes and found himself surprised by the desertion, the utter silence. He turned his gaze onto Roxas, the blond not moving, not twitching, hardly breathing unless you looked at him from the right angle.

"...So, how're you feeling now?"

For a long moment, Roxas didn't react to the question; then, slowly, his expression changed as he shrugged, some of the frozen quality melting from his features to show the haggardness beneath. "I've been better."

Smiling a little, Axel called on all the remaining strength in his poor, overwrought muscles and staggered to his feet, leaving his bowl on the ground, carrying the remainder of his tea and dragging his fold-out chair across the dirt to settle it next to Roxas, the blond watching with one blue eye, the other hidden by dirty hair. He sat down again with a heavy breath, propping an elbow on the hard plastic arm of his chair, resting his chin on it and gazing over at the kid, his smile back in place but larger and warmer now. "So, here we are, then."

Roxas continued to stare, his visible eye narrowing a little like the redhead was acting vaguely moronic. "No kidding."

Undeterred, Axel continued cajolingly, "You and me, all alone in the dark under a rocky sky..."

Roxas rubbed his face wearily, muttering, "I think I'm coming down with something."

"Mmhm." Axel smirked, leaned closer, lowered his voice. "If it's a hot feeling making you think that way, don't worry, that's just because of _me."_ He reached up to stroke a lazy hand down the side of Roxas' face, the blond jolting at the unexpected touch, twitching away with a scowl, glaring before tossing his head meaningfully towards Ansem's illuminated tent.

"I've told you before – not on expedition. Not where he might see."

"Roxas, come on." Axel reluctantly straightened, following the blond's gaze with an unimpressed expression. "The guy really isn't going to care, he already knows that there's something funny going on with Riku and your brother."

"Sora's different, though," Roxas replied, putting some distance between their bodies, absently wiping at the place where Axel had touched him in a way that displeased the man. "What Sora does doesn't matter, and they're not trying to rub it in his face. I know you, Axel, I know that if I give you an inch you'll take a goddamn mile, and that's the last thing I need in front of him. One or both of us will get our asses fired over it, just you watch."

Smiling thinly, Axel said, "Yeah? I don't think that that threat scares me, though, so how about that?"

"How about the fact that it scares _me?_ I don't want to get fired, you know – and he'd do it, don't think some supposed sentimental attachment would stop him."Roxas shook his head, ending the conversation by tipping the last of his tea onto the ground and standing, gathering his bowl and spoon and giving Axel one final look. Evidently softening enough to take some pity on the frowning man, Roxas sighed, reaching out and tugging at one of his long, crimson spikes, Axel's head swaying with the motion. "Don't take too much longer, okay? We've got aliens to find in the morning, remember."

He started walking away towards their shared tent, hiking boots scuffing along the earth with each of his tired, dragging steps. Axel watched him go with an unchanging expression, unable to figure out which one of Roxas or Ansem he resented more at the moment. He really hadn't been planning on initiating any romantic liaisons with the boss's adopta-kid when he'd taken the job at the very start, and indulging in it was turning out to be as much trouble as it was pleasant the rest of the time. Ansem, Roxas, Sora, their weird little family dynamic and the fact that neither of the twins called the guy 'dad' – had it really been worthwhile getting mixed up in, when in the end he found himself left alone in front of a fake-log fire with nobody to intimately cuddle through the long night?

The rasp of a zipper brought Axel's gaze across to Roxas' crouched form outside their two-man tent, the blond's jeans riding low, his shirt slipping up his back a little as he leaned forward to mess around with the sleeping bags before crawling in, the last sight before he disappeared all the way in being his ass in the air...

"...Shit." Axel scowled for a moment, before chucking his drink on the fire.

Aliens in the morning. Right.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Morning wasn't really morning without sunlight. Roxas cracked open his eyes to darkness and found himself blinking sleepily at the canvas of the tent wall, wondering where the birds had got to. He jumped a little as, behind him, Axel snuffled and rolled in his sleep, the slippery sound of the redhead's sleeping bag splitting the preternatural silence consuming the world and reminding Roxas of where he was.

Blearily, drawing a hand up from the confines of his bedding, he wiped the sleep from his eyes, clumsy with the hangover of overexertion and sickness, stomach hollow with only last night's meagre meal filling its depths. Slowly, the blond turned onto his back, let out a wide yawn and sat, bringing up his knees and hanging over them as he waited for the drowsiness to fall away, eyes heavy and grainy. Unzipping the side of his sleeping bag, carefully so as not to disturb the slumbering redhead on the other half of the tent, Roxas slid out from inside it, still wearing yesterday's jeans, last night's shirt smelling slightly from the perspiration that hadn't quite all washed off. He crawled for the exit, dragging down the zipper and slipping through the gap. He paused for a moment, one hand splayed on the dirt outside, peering back into the dimness of the tent to see if Axel had been disturbed. When the man gave no indication of stirring, Roxas wrapped a hand around the flashlight just inside the entrance and crept away in a crouch.

Once a safe distance from the tent, he straightened, shaking out his tired, aching limbs and clicking on the torch, letting it pierce the unending gloom that surrounded their lonely little camp. The fire that formed the heart of it burned quietly, spilling out a warm light that managed to touch the fronts of all the tents but reach nowhere into the depths of the perpetual darkness itself. Nobody else was awake yet, the campsite utterly quiet. Shining his flashlight around, pointing it up towards the far-off ceiling but unable to see it, Roxas wandered, his footsteps scuffing through the dry dust, eyes peeled for rocks to avoid stumbling over. With an intense day ahead, he found that he quite enjoyed this little sliver of silence as he slouched along in near-pure darkness towards the lake's edge. Later, it would be lit by floodlights, Ansem wanting to search its depths since the spelunkers' artefact had been discovered near its shore, but for now it looked like tar. Even when Roxas shone his light onto it, only the first few inches showed up as a deep grey, the rest of it like a faintly shining abyss sitting in the middle of the cavern, silent and still and deceptive.

Roxas glanced at his wristwatch, the numbers illuminated in the darkness. The time read nearly six a.m. Up above, the sun was rising, miles and miles away; down here, the water barely rippled, a glassy surface that didn't even know what true light was. He gazed at it a stretching minute longer, saw the flash of a fish dart beneath his flashlight's glow, and knew it wouldn't be long before he was down there with it. The thought didn't thrill him. It would be like sinking into ice; he had felt just how chilly that water was last night when he had used a bit of it to clean the sweat off. Soon, it would be all over him, all around, above and below, and it was enough to make a guy start feeling claustrophobic and vaguely nauseated all over again.

A buzzing noise suddenly broke out back at the camp, Roxas turning curiously to see Ansem appear from his tent moments later, making the rounds to wake everyone up. Evidently, the man had brought an alarm clock to ensure that none of the day's precious waking moments could be wasted. It didn't bode well for the trip – Ansem wasn't even going to tolerate a five-minute sleep-in, by the sound of his voice. Even all the way over here by the water, Roxas could hear the sharp demands for everyone to be up and dressed within three minutes. It was going to be a long day. Releasing a sigh, throwing one last glance down at the lake's dark surface, he made his slow way back up to camp.

When he got to the fire, everyone else had already established themselves in prime heat-leeching positions, the air down in this empty, cavernous space positively frigid. Centuries of darkness had turned it into an icy pit of black; their single, small fire must have seemed like the blazing of Hades to any long-lost critters that hung about down here. He dragged his fold-out chair as near to the flames as he could, sitting heavily behind Sora and Riku with a sigh. Hearing him, they glanced over their shoulders, Riku showing little interest in his presence, but Sora, typically, unable to help but seem to melt a little at the bedraggled and woebegone appearance of his sibling. He turned back, rustled through a rucksack, then twisted towards Roxas with an energy bar. "Breakfast," he explained, before passing over his own barely-touched mug of tea and standing to go and get a new one.

Roxas softly called after him, "Thanks, Sora." He got a dismissive hand-flip in return, and gratefully began sipping at his hot drink, unwrapping the bar with one hand and a quick nip of his teeth.

Breakfast was a quiet affair; while last night everyone had been too tired to speak, this morning… it all just felt too oppressed. This place, this darkness – it was like a heaviness weighing down upon them, inescapable and more real-feeling than the fragility of their firelight. Without light – what were they down here? If they lost their ability to see, then they would die down here, there was no question about it. It was a humbling and sobering thought. Roxas could easily imagine getting depressed after an extended period of this. It was a good thing they were only visitors; to be stuck down here would be their own personal trip to Hell. Those goddamn spelunkers… He sort of hoped they were all getting hit by cars on a freeway somewhere. Sunlight – Roxas was craving it.

After enough time had passed for them all to get something in their stomachs, Ansem, who hadn't eaten anything – Roxas was guessing from the pale strain on his face that he couldn't – rose to his feet, attracting every eye in the stillness. "As you all know," he announced, voice sounding unnaturally harsh in the hush, "we've much to get done, not only today but tonight and tomorrow as well. It may be tiring, but our time down here is too severely limited for us to hold any semblance of normal work hours; we must _push_ ourselves." He gazed around at his small audience, meeting each set of eyes with deliberate force, as though daring any one of them to object. "Sleep and exhaustion can come later, up on the surface, but down here you will work your fingers to the bone, you will stay awake until you no longer know that night is day or day is night – and I'll be confiscating all watches to prevent you from having any such idea, mental suggestion must not be allowed to interfere!"

Roxas caught Axel exchanging a quick, wry look with Riku, the faces around the campfire becoming tense with Ansem's words and the realisation of what was expected of them during this trip. The man sure as hell wasn't pulling any punches – if ShinRa cancelled his funding, then that was it, Ansem was out on his ass, and from the sounds of it he was planning to drive them so hard that even if they hobbled out of here with stumps for limbs, it would be worth it as long as they had something to show for it. It was so nice to know they were being cared for. Roxas was close to feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

"If you have an injury of some kind, bring it to me directly," Ansem continued, "but don't expect sympathy for something minor, I want you to use up every _ounce_ of yourselves down here until you are just short of mutinying and leaving me here to die." There was almost a moment where a few of them were going to chuckle, but one look at the expression on Ansem's face convinced them otherwise. Good lord, the man looked like he was serious about that statement. After a pause, in which he silently surveyed them all, he went on, "And so – I will issue out orders, and we will get _to work."_

"Now, son –" Roxas closed his eyes as Cid's voice drawled into the proceedings. Please, God, don't let him challenge Ansem's right to treat them all like pack animals. Ansem would bite off his head, it'd be a massacre, and Roxas just wasn't feeling tough enough yet to weather it – not when the immediate future was looking so stomach-sinkingly bleak. Sure enough, unfortunately, Cid went on, "I do so hope you're not including us supplementary employees in that happy plan. Because if you'll recall, I'm just here to drive the truck. And the wonder twins over there – they're being paid to sit around and look pretty, with maybe a bit of weapon swinging if things start to look dicey at any point. I only say," he continued lazily, lighting a cigarette and scratching at a spot on his forehead, "because you seem to be hell-bent on including everyone within threatening distance, instead of just your four boys there."

Ansem regarded him icily. "You three were hired into myauthority, I see _no_ reason why you oughtn't –"

"I was hired to drive a _truck,"_ Cid repeated with perfect clarity, leaning forward with a creak of his chair, the tip of his cigarette burning orange in the dim light. "I don't have to do anything more than that, I don't have to do diddly-squat, and even if we get home and ShinRa _himself_ fires me for it, and says I'll never work in this town again, _guess what?_ I – drive – a – _truck._ Those skills are mighty useful in almost _all_ places where vehicles find themselves needing to be driven." He sent Ansem a patient look. "Am I getting through? I don't do this relic-hunting crap, and I sure as hell don't do taking orders from a guy who looks like the slightest upset will give him a coronary. Probably shoulda kept my mouth shut, in which case," he added as an afterthought. "But heck, Professor – you just looked so darn _intent_ on recruiting me that I felt the need to speak up before you got too deep into your delusions."

There was hardly a breath being expelled around the fire. Ansem's 'four boys' were wide-eyed, waiting for the explosion. Ansem wasn't a man known for his patience or tolerance in matters of critical urgency – in fact, those were the moments when he was at his most focused and ruthless, and he was no benevolent good fairy even at his most relaxed. In other words, Cid the truck driver was mincemeat waiting to happen. Ansem was going to verbally tear out his spine and hand it to him before reaching down and twisting off his –

"You'd be of no use to me, anyway."

Roxas blinked. It had been short, and icy, but Ansem, with barely suppressed anger, had acceded. There was a collective sigh of relief, the four young assistants glancing at one another, Ansem noticing their reaction and getting grimmer in response. "As for the rest of you, this only means we five will have to work harder than ever. And I don't want to hear a single complaint out of any one of you; this is going to be hard enough without my having to deal with any childish whining because you're hungry and cold."

How Child Services had never taken him and Sora away from this man, Roxas mused, hands dangling between his knees, he would never know. He supposed they should all just be happy and relieved that the brothers were overage these days, not that anything would have been particularly different had they been fifteen or fourteen or even twelve. Ansem wasn't the type of man to notice age in a person – he only recognised potential, and application, and if you had either one he expected full utilisation of these qualities. It didn't matter if you were just a kid. To Ansem, there was no 'just' about it: success was success; failure was failure.

"Sora, Roxas – you're both with me," Ansem commanded, the twins rising slowly to their feet in readiness. "Go to the stockpile and get into your underwater gear; you'll both be exploring the lake for signs of further relic presence. Axel and Riku – pack your bags and prepare yourselves, you'll be climbing and investigating every spare inch of debris surrounding this cavern. I want, literally, no stone left unturned. Do I make myself clear?"

"Like a bell," Axel volunteered, the lilt of his voice telling Roxas that he was, just barely, containing his dryness. Ansem spared him only a fleeting glare, disappearing off into his tent to get his paperwork as the company around the fire broke apart, the four assistants moving to do the bidding of their master. Cid sat loosely in his chair watching them go, while Cloud and Tifa shifted themselves to prepare for their own duties.

Roxas and Sora made for the stockpile – all the bulkier items that had no place in the tents, laid out on tarpaulins and covered for protection. At least down here they didn't have to worry about anyone stealing their stuff. In the middle of the tarp was the underwater equipment: rebreathers and goggles, flippers, army knives in their thick sheaths. The two brothers put aside everything they would need, laying it all out carefully so that nothing could be missed or forgotten, before quickly ducking behind the tents to change into their wetsuits. They padded back in bare feet, Ansem coming towards them with his determined expression firmly in place, eyeing them with satisfaction. He called, "We'll take the generators over to the water's edge with the flood lights and set them up. After that, you can return for your light sticks, they'll last you a good eight hours down below."

The way he said it suggested to Roxas that he pretty much meant for them to stay down there for every minute of those eight hours unless a miracle occurred and something actually turned up. When he thought about it, really considered it closely, Roxas found that he didn't actually expect them to find anything more than the spelunkers already had. It was just too improbable – one alien artefact was lightning-strike lucky enough without hoping for another one to be just a few feet over to the left. As they all hauled the lights and generators into their arms, Roxas flicked a glance at Ansem, and saw on his face, too, a reflection of precisely what he himself was thinking at that moment. This… wasn't actually going to work. Whatever had been found down here, _if_ it was even alien in origin at all – it wasn't going to happen twice. No wonder Ansem was so badly on edge; he was virtually without hope. These were his final hours as a ShinRa archaeologist, after which the future was a bleak and uncertain creation. Sure, there could be others out there interested in funding the man – but for a flimsy, whimsical subject like the search for evidence of the sub-physical hearts of planets, it would be a long and hard search before he yielded anything. Only Rufus ShinRa had the wealth to toss away on such extravagant nonsense.

Together, Roxas and Ansem began carrying the equipment down from the campsite to the lake, Sora staying by the shore to hook up the floodlights and get the generators going. They had enough fuel to keep the lights running for thirty-six hours straight. Roxas didn't even know if they'd be underground that long, but at least they didn't have to worry about not being able to see. As much as he wasn't looking forward to being stuck under a silent wall of dark water, at least the lights would serve as a beacon back to the surface.

They completed the setting-up preliminaries just as Axel and Riku stopped by, loaded up with packs, harnesses and pick-axes, looking ready to excavate an entire civilisation. Axel was still wearing his wry look, spinning his pick-axe between his hands so that the metal was a blur of reflected brightness in the backwash from the floodlights. "Well, we're ready," Riku announced, managing to keep most of the weight from his voice.

"So we see," Roxas shortly remarked, sparing the overburdened duo only a glance as he pulled on his flippers, Ansem coming down towards them with a collection of dully luminescent tubes.

"Wish us luck out there," Axel smirked. "And I'll uh, wish you luck in the great deep beyond, okay?"

"…Deal." Roxas flashed him a brief, twitching half-smile, the four of them communicating almost psychically in that moment as they stood together – _oh, what it is to work for Ansem._ Oh, happy day. Well, with any luck, this'd be the last time any of them had to suffer his dictatorship. Roxas really didn't think he'd be too cut up if Ansem bombed it.

Sora was another story, however. "You guys get going," he whispered quickly, as Ansem was almost level. "He needs us."

"He needs pack-horses and a slave mine," Axel muttered, but before Ansem could begin to berate them for wasting time, the two assistants were moving again.

Riku murmured a soft, "See you", the pair trekking away from the water and up towards the rocky edges of the cavern, where countless rock-climbing opportunities awaited, a thousand niches ripe for exploration. Ansem, as he stopped beside the brothers, glared after them but evidently chose to keep whatever he was thinking to himself. No sense in demoralising the troops that little bit further before the hard work had even begun, Roxas supposed. He handed Roxas and Sora the tubes he was holding, white light sticks that would illuminate the murky depths of the lake. "Don't activate them until you are in the water," he warned. "We want them to last as long as possible down there. And boys…" He locked eyes with each of them solemnly. "Don't let me down."

"How? By finding more fish than relics?" Roxas had uttered it without even thinking, squeezing his eyes closed a second later with a sigh as he realised what he had just provoked. When he opened them again, Ansem was a bare inch away, his eyes boring into Roxas' like drills.

"I don't appreciate your attitude," Ansem quietly commented, a tight burn within his words. "And unless it improves swiftly, I fear that you and I will find ourselves in dire straits, my boy. Watch your tongue on this trip, Roxas – I will issue you this one, single warning and hope you take it to heart. Because I _will not endure your idiocy."_ He held Roxas' gaze with narrowed, icy eyes, ensuring that the message had sunk in. When Roxas looked away after a stretching moment, submitting, Ansem gave a sharp nod. "And while I have your attention, steer clear of Axel a little better than you have been, understand? I don't know why you and he shared a tent last night, but in future I would like for you and your brother to -"

"That's got nothing to do with anything," Roxas gritted out. "Sora and Riku shared a tent, so I went and shared with Axel, there's nothing _to_ it, Ansem." He should have stopped right there, he could feel Sora willing him to because he'd pushed his luck so far already that it was teetering on the brink of a volcano. But he just couldn't help but add, "Besides, I am old enough to take care of myself and Axel is _completely_ harmless –"

" _Hah!"_ Ansem cut him off with a loud snort that echoed in the gloom. "Harmless? He's a ShinRa employee, idiot boy, there'll never be anything harmless about those two. You cannot trust them, either of them."

"So what does that make you?" Roxas challenged sharply. In the background, behind Ansem, Sora appeared and started making damping-down hand gestures, anxiously trying to cut the blond off. "If you aren't a ShinRa employee after years of accepting Rufus' payouts and working on his behalf, then what _are_ you, _Dad?_ His dog, maybe? His _female_ dog?"

He'd gone too far. Roxas knew it, Sora nearly collapsed behind Ansem he knew it so much, and Ansem certainly knew it. His face went red, then pale, as Roxas struggled to keep his expression fixed and not show how much he suddenly regretted not keeping his mouth shut. The man shoved the last of the light sticks into Roxas' chest, hard enough to hurt. "There is a vast amount of difference between myself and a ShinRa employee, boy." It came out as a hiss. "The first of which being that I will not allow you to speak to me in such a crude manner. Get in the water, and don't come out until you are carrying something worthwhile. Fail, and you're no longer in my employ."

He twisted on heel and swooped off behind the floodlights, disappearing into the darkness. Roxas was left gazing glumly at Sora, who looked stricken. He never did deal well with conflict, the kid was an instinctive healer of rifts, and hated knowing that there was no cure for the one that existed between his only two family members. If, that was, you could even consider someone like Ansem 'family'.

"I don't need to hear it," Roxas said, forestalling any obvious comments Sora had bubbling inside. Feeling sullen, sick and tired of the expedition already, he started hooking up his rebreather and preparing for the dive into the lake. Unhappily, Sora did the same, neither boy speaking until they inserted their mouthpieces, which would mute them until they were back on dry land.

Looking like out of place sea monsters in all their gear, they walked in an ungainly fashion to the lake's edge. Roxas cracked his glow stick as the first of the water lapped onto his flippers, the light flaring to life within the tube, white and strong. It didn't seem like much under the glare of the flood lights, but oh, boy, it was going to count once he was under. They would be able to locate one another deep in the water by the point of light the other gave out; they had no other way of communicating except to look for that bright spot and swim towards it, if a discovery was made. Not that it would be. But who knew, Roxas thought, as he waded deeper into the black, icy lake and bent down to commence a slow breaststroke – maybe Axel would find something with his pickaxe… and probably break it in the process.

Oh, well.

He and Sora dove, heading away from the brighter world of generator-powered lights and into the inky depths of cold silence. It would be hours before they saw another human face. Until then, it was the fish for company, and a hope that the centuries of blind solitude hadn't given birth to any mutant carnivores with a curiosity for treasure-hunting boy-flesh.


End file.
